No, Arda Güler isn't Real Madrid's best player this season, and the fun part is that Marc Cucurella almost certainly knows it. He gave the answer that makes a good radio segment. It doesn't survive a second look.
Cucurella, on international duty with Spain, got asked who Real Madrid's best player is. He could've said the obvious name. Instead he said: "I could choose Mbappe or Bellingham or Courtois, but I'll mention a player I love a lot who doesn't get enough attention, and that's Arda Guler." The internet did the rest, flattening a warm shout-out into a literal ranking that puts a 21-year-old above Kylian Mbappé, Thibaut Courtois and Jude Bellingham.
Cucurella trains next to Güler every day. He joined Real Madrid in 2026. That's why the quote deserves to be taken seriously, and also why it shouldn't be read as a scouting report.
What Cucurella's getting at is real. When Güler plays, Madrid build through ideas instead of simply launching the ball forward. He's freakishly calm for a kid with that baby face. He's the clearest proof of what José Mourinho's side wants to become. Last season he won LaLiga's Goal of the Season award for that ridiculous long-range strike against Elche. When other players rave about someone, he's usually underrated.
None of that makes him the best one. Mbappé is still the most devastating attacking weapon on this Madrid roster, and no amount of praise for passing lanes beats a striker who can take over a match. Courtois, when fit, is the single most reliable square metre on the pitch in a sport where one goalkeeping mistake can decide a title. Bellingham has a higher ceiling than Güler's reached yet, and his running and defending give Güler the room to play in those clever spaces. Take the engine out and the connector has far less time to connect.
Cucurella caused the whole fuss, on purpose. This is one teammate hyping another, wrapped in a surprise pick: generous, and a little mischievous. The quote works because it surprises you. It isn't accurate.
The debate it kicked off is the wrong one. Madrid sit second in LaLiga through the opening months of the 2026-27 season, three points back of Barcelona, and on the better nights it's a kid who makes everyone around him play faster holding things together. Call Güler Madrid's most indispensable passer and you're on solid ground. Call him better than Mbappé and you've let a nice soundbite win an argument it couldn't win on merit.
